


Peer Critique

by SirKai



Category: Transformers - All Media Types, Transformers Generation One
Genre: Blizzards & Snowstorms, Fluff, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-24
Updated: 2014-01-24
Packaged: 2018-01-09 20:36:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,912
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1150537
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SirKai/pseuds/SirKai
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>While looking for strange activity in a remote region of the arctic, Perceptor and Skyfire stumble upon a loud and screeching discovery.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Peer Critique

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is for one of the prompts for Deers' TF Secret Santa 2013 that, sadly, wasn't filled. And enormous thanks to Deers for helping me iron out the details for this fic, and to GoingLoco for providing inspiration for the ending.

Perceptor trudged through the snowy depths. Nearly half of his body was submerged beneath the cold white surface of the snow. “The area for this supposed _alien activity_ is much too wide,” he complained. The scientist glanced at the small scanner in his hand. The blank screen occasionally lit up in long intervals with a pulsating radar ring. "And this blizzard isn't doing us any favors." He made a mental note that Prime could dispatch someone else for the next arctic expedition.

The much larger Skyfire, who comfortably traveled with the snow barely reaching his knees, made sure to stagger his walking pace so his red companion could keep up. “I think there’s someone up ahead,” he warned with an outstretched arm to block Perceptor. His head peered forward, optics squinting through the flurry of white and gray.

"Decepticons?"

"No..." Skyfire's voice trailed off. "It seems to be only one." 

"I highly recommend we maintain extreme caution; it could be a trap." Perceptor drew his blaster, gripping it with both hands. He trained it forward as he followed the larger autobot.

"I don't think it is..."

A high pitched yelp punctuated Skyfire's claim. Preceptor hunched forward with his servos tightly clenching his gun. "Do you even comprehend how naive you sound, Skyfire? I must warn that that is become something of a habit for you."

Skyfire either ignored Perceptor's words or was too distracted by the wailing to respond. He continued his trek through the blizzard. 

Perceptor shrugged and followed.

The distant cries cleared into a familiar shriek as the two autobots neared the source. "Dirge! Blitzwing! You two cannot abandon me out here! Lord Megatron will hear about this!" As the flurry of snow slowly started to thin, the silhouette of a half-buried decepticon came into view.

Neither of the autobots had any trouble putting the shrill voice with its mid-sized frame.

" _Lord_ Megatron, Starscream?" Perceptor called back.

The silhouette of Starscream shot it's head in the direction of the two autobots. Glowing red optics pierced through the snowfall, followed by the rest of his miserable, enraged face as the autobot scientists closed in.

"I didn't know you thought so highly of him; you never did seem like a very loyal first lieutenant," Perceptor smarmed dryly as he aimed his blaster at the enemy. "But I suppose no one would listen if you didn't threaten them with your _boss_." 

"Wha- Autobots!? Is this some kind of joke!?" Starscream stretched the fingers on his only free hand through the snow like it might reveal some hidden weapon. The rest of his body was unseen beneath the snow and ice.

"If it is an attempt at humor, it’s certainly in poor taste. I was hoping for a more promising discovery than _this_ kind of alien activity. Quite a dud, wouldn't you say Skyfire?"

Skyfire however, was too distracted by Starscream's icy predicament. He paced around the decepticon, noting that only his head and one flailing arm were exposed. 

Preceptor stepped closer to the scene. "Skyfire, it would be foolish to simply leave Starscream here by himself; we should capitalize on the situation."

The larger autobot studiously scratched at his chin with his thumb. "I think you're right Perceptor." He moved in towards the trapped seeker. The ice crunched and cracked under his enormous feet. 

"No, wait, Skyfire!" the decepticon scientist pleaded. He helplessly waved his free hand around as if it was going to make a difference. "We were friends right? Y-you wouldn't just attack me like this, right!? No, stop! I'll-"

Perceptor impatiently folded his arms. "In the name of Alpha Trion, does he ever shut up?"

When he was finally looming over Starscream, Skyfire reached down with his massive arms.

The seeker shuttered his optics close as the hands neared, and he resorted to his final line of defense: screaming. _Loud_ screaming.

"I'd suggest keeping your vocal activity to a minimum,” Skyfire said as he swept his arms through the thick snow to clear it away from the trapped decepticon. “You'll only waste your energy."

Perceptor watched quietly with his lower jaw hanging open, then snapped it shut as he hurried to catch up. "You know this isn't at all what I meant!" Though he couldn’t disagree with the instruction about _minimizing vocal activity_.

Skyfire brushed aside a mound of snow to reveal a translucent floor of ice that was tightly housing most of the seeker’s frame. “His weapons are no doubt damaged by the ice; he’s harmless,” Skyfire concluded.

“Harmless!? I am the future leader of the decepticons!”

“Where have I heard _that_ before?” Perceptor’s sarcasm-dripped words were followed by a lengthy sigh. The scientist was generally displeased around any decepticon, but Starscream was placed particularly low on his tolerance list.

“We can’t leave him out here to freeze, Perceptor,” Skyfire said, tuning and tweaking the knobs on his blaster.

“I don’t see why not,” Perceptor replied with folded arms.

“As I have come to understand, autobots act upon compassion and mercy.”

“And scientists act upon _logic_ and _reasoning_. I see little of either in this endeavor.”

“I refuse to sentence anyone to a fate like this.” Skyfire paused the tampering with his weapon, and looked down at Perceptor with a stern, arched expression.

Perceptor lifted his chin, opened his mouth, and raised a studious finger to retort. He glared back at his companion’s unflinching expression for a moment before stopping. The red scientist stood there, still as the ice around him, until his shoulders started to sag after several seconds. He lowered his hand, and his optics wandered to the side. Perceptor eventually settled on a quiet “I see…” as his response.

Skyfire softened his expression and knelt down to continue clearing the snow. He knew Perceptor didn’t like to apologize (or, well, admit fault to any degree). “So, are you going to help me?”

“You mean help _him_ ,” Perceptor corrected with a considerable amount of restored sass and a distinct nod towards the immobile decepticon.

Skyfire simply nodded.

The red autobot put a hand on his hip. “Very well,” he conceded. “But don’t say I didn’t warn you about these types. You haven’t been exposed to them like the rest of us.”

Smirking, Skyfire placed both hands back on his blaster. “I’ve been around this one here more than anyone,” he said with a wink.

“Are you two just going to talk about helping me out of this inland iceberg or are you actually going to do it!?”

“My how your mood changes, Starscream.”

Skyfire shot a disappointed look at Perceptor.

“... _but_ if it will cease that intolerable shrieking then yes, by all means.” Expressing courtesy towards of a decepticon was hardly pleasant for the scientist, but worth it to see his fellow autobot’s face warm up. At the very least, Perceptor didn’t feel as guilty.  
After a few more careful tweaks to his weapon, and some choice bits of advice by Starscream (“Be careful with that you giant oaf!”), Skyfire trained a smoking hot laser from the end of his blaster into the ice at his feet. He slowly circled Starscream until a jagged circle had been cut into the ice, then kneeled in front of the seeker as he worked.

“Perceptor,” Skyfire called. "If we both use our weapons to melt the ice, this will be much quicker." 

“Oh very well.” Perceptor tuned the laser on his rifle and sat cross legged behind the decepticon seeker, gently motioning the laser from his weapon through the ice.

“Is this going to take all night?” Starscream pestered. His arms instinctively tried to fold themselves.

“We can only hope not,” Perceptor said.

There was a great deal of berating, screeched complaining, and snide remarks about Skyfire's new allegiance, but the giant autobot was able coax an explanation out of Starscream for the rather ironic turn of events. 

"I was scouting for energon over this arctic graveyard with the other flyers," the decepticon recounted. "We were all mixed up in this blizzard and I crashed down here. And those traitors abandoned me!" 

"Such a tragedy," Perceptor muttered quietly to himself. 

"You know we wouldn't have had to resort to _story time_ if you two worked faster. You could remove the dampers on your blasters and increase their output, and this wouldn't take _so long_."

"Our current rate is acceptable, Starscream," Skyfire assured. "There's no reason to risk damaging our equipment."

"It won't damage anything! I know what I'm talking about; remember, I'm a scientist too!"

Preceptor made an audible "ahem" sound, followed by a hushed muttering.

Starscream turned his attention to the red-and-black autobot. "What was that?"

"Nothing. It was nothing."

"Do not try to deceive me! I will have you know-"

"I didn't say anything of interest to you, you crass deceptiloon! Only that..."

Starscream's mouth twisted into an expectant frown.

Preceptor lifted his chin as he responded, matching the proud tone in his voice. "You _were_ a scientist, Starscream. I simply wanted to correct you, that's all."

The decepticon craned his head back, wearing an utterly aghast expression. His mouth opened, closed, opened again (this time for a bit longer), twitched, and then once again closed. After a frustrating bout of stammering, he shot an accusing look at Skyfire. "This is how you speak about me, Skyfire? Now that I'm no longer around with you and your _new friends?_ "

"Well," Skyfire said softly. "It's not untrue, Starscream. You abandoned your career as a scientist to become a warri-"

" _I did not abandon anything!_ " Starscream huffed. His face was bunched up into a mess of metallic folds that looked positively furious.

"I-" Skyfire cut himself off, and adopted a more solemn inflection in his voice. "Yes, of course."

Silence was the topic of choice among the three for the remainder of the melting procedure. Eventually the seeker regained movement of the rest of his limbs and yanked them from the melting ice. 

"Starscream, you really shouldn't be moving after such exposure to these temperatures," Skyfire advised. "You need more time for your parts to fully recover-"

"I'm fine, you idiot autobot! And a _gracious_ thank you for your help!" Starscream sneered at his rescuers and shook off the remaining bits of slushy ice from his limbs.

"Well, I have every confidence that you would do the same for me, Starscream."

Preceptor noticed that the smile on Skyfire's face appeared wholly genuine.

Starscream paused from brushing more clumps of snow. His head turned towards his old friend, and for the briefest of moments there might have been something other than misery and disdain captured in Starscream's face.

But only for that brief moment. "I already _did_ do that for you, you fool," he spat. There was that familiar mechanical cue as Starscream leapt into the air, followed by his limbs shifting, rotating and tucking all at once. Just a few short seconds later, he was a distinctly earth-inspired fighter jet. Thrusters flared and engines roared as he flew away with a stark vapor trail following his course.

Skyfire's optics tracked Starscream's flight through the gray sky. He sighed longingly when the zooming plane was finally out of sight. 

There was a lengthy moment filled only by the echoing jet engines and the whirring wind of the blizzard, but Perceptor couldn’t wait too long before chiming in. "Well," he said in a low and judging tone, like he was reflecting on events so far. "You certainly do make interesting friends, Skyfire."


End file.
